Webliography for the ages.

Webliography

Question 1: ‘Why should our bodies end at the skin?” asks Donna Haraway. Discuss the idea of skin in relation to how we imagine our future embodiment.

 1. Miah, A. & Rich, E. 2008, The Medicaliasation of Cyberspace, Routledge, New York. 

This book, found on google.books.com takes a slightly different look at cyberspace by focusing on the process of it’s medicalisation, or as Miah and Rich put it, the process of cybermedicalisation (p 26). Medicalisation is a process that allows an institutionalised and scientific view of something and it can be found with a number of things, including child rearing and dreaming, both were and are being more medicalised but this book was the first I have ever heard of the process being applied to technology such a cyber space. They also provide several case studies in order to back up their argument that bodies have always been a part of the Internet, which is similar to Almond’s claim that bodies are always present (Almond 2010). They also claim that the assumption that bodies are absent on cyberspace are incorrect and if our bodies really do go beyond our skin the way Haraway claims, the place for that to take place would be online. However the book also looks at the body through other forms of media including television. This book shows the body as something not always in physical form and how people are taking leaps towards recognising that the body has presence in cyberspace. It’s impressively different.

 

2. Jones, D.E, n.d.  I, Avatar: Constructions of Self and Place in Second Life 

and the Technological Imagination, gnovis.

This work focuses on the idea of the constructed body. Based on the MMORPG, (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) Second Life by Linden Lab it looks at how people act and interact in a world where they have complete control over their bodies. Jones mentions the construction of spaces in the real world and the virtual world, which is has importance in the discuss of Harraway’s question of skin since what is the ‘real’ world and what is not depends a lot on each are interpreted. It is easier to believe that the skin is not the end of the body if constructed virtual worlds are also seen as real in some sense.  How bodies are placed within the cyber world is explored in the article since people are giving the ability to change anything they want about themselves, so they wield a lot more power. The thing is, these virtual realties are growing in popularity all the time even to the point where it has become the social norm to be somewhere in cyberspace. As it grows in popularity I think the amount of research will also increase and this article will still hold it’s ground.

 

3. Miah, A. 2008, Human Futures: art in the age of uncertainty, Liverpool University Press,

Another source from google.books and by the author Andy Miah. Miah has done a lot of work the field of human studies in relation to cyberspace and technology and this book is a good example of where people are predicting our lives to take us. Unlike the other sources this book looks more at the advances in biological sciences, such as cloning and even advances in plastic surgery. Biological science is an interesting an interesting factor to think about, since any artificial limb, skin graft or organ are part of technological advancement and are often used in arguments about what really constitutes the ‘body’ or a ‘real human’. So it would be a good source to use since not only does it look at the body, and the skin, it goes further to predict further medical advancement and how it will affect not only humans socially but also in art. Since art is a reflection of society it will be interesting to see what develops in the future, and this book provides an interesting insight. Whatever form of media used, in art or technology, provides an extension of the “self”, whether it’s the telephone or a painting. This is due to the presence felt through media and creates another form of human not bound by the skin.

 

4. Almond. P, 2010, Taking the Virtual out of Virtual Reality, 17 March 2005, Paul-Almond Blog. 

This article is rather interesting since it is looks at the different levels of reality and how they interact. Since I have been focusing more on virtual reality in order to illustrate how people in some way do not end at their skin, it is important to show the significance of virtual realities. Almond argues that in fact, virtual reality is just reality and that humans exist in a world overlayed with realties. So in a way we are always part of virtual reality. He uses the example of Second Life again, which is a logical, since it is a completely virtual world where people can control the environment as well as their own avatar; it was invented purely for person-to-person interaction and is meant to be a mirror image of the real world. This source would critical since it demonstrates how much our lives have been penetrated by technology, even to the point where it has created another reality on top of our own. And if you follow the claim that virtual reality is reality then the avatars we create in that world must be extensions of our body, and our skin. Almond has a number of interesting articles on his blog, however, the fact that it is a blog and not a published website does ruin some of it’s credibility. Luckily, he uses a lot sources and shows that he has critically thought about his argument.

 

5. Suler. J, 2010, The Psychology of Avatars and Graphical Spaces eNotAlone.com

Since this research has taken a virtual reality turn, it is important to contemplate the skin of virtual reality, which are the avatars people use to represent them. John Suler’s website has three articles dedicated entirely to understanding avatars and the psychological processes behind them, however I will focus on the first article. He uses the example of Main Mansion Palace by the company Electronic Communities, which only shows the face of the avatar know affectionately as smileys (Suler 2010) and is mostly conversational based, but not entirely text based. While the system Suler talks about is not as sophisticated as Second Life, he still raises many good points about how people interact and make assumptions about people though their avatars. I would have to look further into the Main Mansion Palace in order to really understand the roles of avatars in it, but the article is still relevant.

I would have had this up yesterday, but I came down with a fever.